5 worst wrestling matches of 1995

1995 is widely regarded as one of the worst years in WWE history. Business was down for that company, many of its most heavily-pushed stars weren’t drawing as much as anticipated, and Vince was facing stiff competition from WCW. Even worse for him, ECW, AJPW and NJPW were all doing tremendous business, and were all proving to be successful alternatives to Vince’s product at the time.

The main reason for this was because Vince McMahon was pushing the wrong people into top positions. Despite having great wrestlers in Shawn Michaels and both Bret and Owen Hart, McMahon decided to push some of the lesser wrestlers into his top spots. One of those wrestlers was a man named Mabel, who was such a disappointing wrestler that he appears in three of the five matches we have on this list.

All of these matches were downright terrible, and served as prime reasons why WWE was so bad from both a critical and commercial standpoint in 1995.

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#5. Hulk Hogan vs. Vader - WCW Uncensored 1995

Two legends like these in the ring together SHOULD be a recipe for greatness...but it was actually a disaster

There are two reasons why this match appears on this list. First, there were all kinds of shenanigans surrounding this match’s structure and creative direction. For some unknown reason, both Ric Flair and a masked man (later revealed to be Randy Savage), interfered, which caused the actual match finish to get completely screwed up.

Secondly, Hulk Hogan’s politicking was on full display in this match. Hogan completely no-sold Vader’s biggest moves, including his signature Powerbomb, which had been built up for years as a devastating maneuver. Meanwhile, earlier in the show, Flair (himself a WCW icon) was selling wildly for a character named The Renegade, which was as blatant a rip-off of the Ultimate Warrior as one could get.

So not only do you have a match that leads to one of the biggest super-heavyweight monsters ever ending up looking weak, but Hogan also won the match despite interference from Flair. Vader felt like a complete afterthought after this dumpster fire of a match, which must’ve been the opposite of what was intended when it was first booked.

#4. Mabel vs. The Undertaker – King Of The Ring 1995

KOTR 1995 is widely regarded as the worst iteration of the famed tournament, and the main reason for this was the winner: Mabel. Mabel was never an exciting wrestler, and he had a knack for putting on bad matches and hurting people. This is a case of the former, as Mabel faced Undertaker in the first round of the tournament.

Unfortunately, Undertaker wasn’t able to have a good match on this night, as they kept going back to rest holds and chokes for the majority of the contest. Any time any momentum seemed to rise and the crowd got excited, that disappeared as ‘Taker and Mabel went back to choking each other. Doing so killed the progress of the match and any fan excitement.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the match was worsened by a ref getting hit and outside interference. Both of those things made this match almost completely forgettable, and did precious little to make Mabel into a credible top wrestler.

#3. Sting vs. Tony Palmore - NJPW Battle 7

Tony Palmore was one of those people that made you wonder what on earth he was doing in a wrestling ring. He was a kickboxer who made his name in the 1970s, so what he was doing on this NJPW Tokyo Dome show is anyone’s guess.

And because his peak was two decades earlier, he was awfully unprepared to wrestle anyone, much less Sting.

Palmore was poor at everything he did, which was very little. His strikes were slow and weak, yet poor Sting had to sell for him. He even fell down during one of his own strikes, just like how Raja Lion did in that infamous nightmare match with Giant Baba decades ago.

It was awkward seeing Sting be shoehorned into a match with this kind of opponent, yet that was part of the booking that Antonio Inoki seemed to like. Unfortunately, Inoki didn’t learn from the mistakes he made with this match.

On the contrary, he’d double down on the ‘realistic shootfighters’ booking so much by decade’s end that it would almost kill NJPW completely.

#2. Yokozuna vs. Mabel - In Your House 4

According to most fans, Vince McMahon likes big, sweaty men. Well, it doesn’t get any bigger (or sweatier) than Yokozuna and Mabel, better known as Viscera.

When these two men clashed, there was close to 1,000 pounds of weight between them. Because of their massive girths, it was nearly impossible for either one of them to do anything really exciting.

The match consisted of very basic moves and a lot of punching and clotheslines. Both guys did a lot of stalling and actually executed their maneuvers so solely they could be seen from miles away. At one point, Yokozuna botched a bulldog, one of the simplest moves in wrestling to execute, and landed very awkwardly.

Finally, the match ended in a double-countout, which is one of the most boring ways to end a match. It works if, for example, both men get smashed through an object like the announcer’s table or the barricades, but not when one wrestler trips and falls over their own manager.

#1. Mabel vs. Savio Vega – King Of The Ring 1995

The 1995 King of the Ring tournament is considered one of the worst

The 1995 King of the Ring tournament suffered from both terrible booking and worse wrestling. It culminated with Mabel facing off against Savio Vega, despite the tournament having several other better wrestlers that could’ve benefitted from the victory. Mabel and Vega did nothing of note in this match, which went over eight minutes in length.

There were only a small handful of interesting moves in this match, including a Belly-to-Belly suplex and a splash from Mabel. But those few moves didn’t do anything to make this match particularly exciting.

Worse, after the match ended, WWE booked a ton of other stars to come out and try and cause shenanigans (including Razor Ramon and both Bret and Owen Hart), yet all of them got fed to Mabel.

The fans watching hated this match so much that they chanted ECW (because, Philadelphia) and pelted the ring with garbage. Yes, the fans actually threw trash into the ring, they hated this so much. If that isn’t a visual indictment of this match and its booking, I don’t know what is.